Environmental Comparison of Metal Coating Processes

Taking into account the expected growth of the world's population and increasing welfare level in developing countries, the global energy and material resource demand can be expected to increase significantly. Therefore, the environmental burden per unit produced should be strongly reduced in order to assure a sustainable impact level [1,2]. This paper describes the environmental assessment and comparison of two alternative metal coating techniques: i.e. electrostatic powder coating and fluidized bed sintering. The paper starts with a general description of both investigated metal coating processes. Subsequently the life cycle inventory data collection effort is described and an environmental impact assessment is performed for both processes. The environmental performance of both processes is compared taking into account the differences in expected life time of both coatings. Finally, an overview of potential improvement measures is provided.